Waterflood control system for maximizing total oil recovery

Abstract

A control system and method for determining optimal fluid injection pressure is based upon a model of a growing hydrofracture due to waterflood injection pressure. This model is used to develop a control system optimizing the injection pressure by using a prescribed injection goal coupled with the historical times, pressures, and volume of injected fluid at a single well. In this control method, the historical data is used to derive two major flow components: the transitional component, where cumulative injection volume is scaled as the square root of time, and a steady-state breakthrough component, which scales linearly with respect to time. These components provide diagnostic information and allow for the prevention of rapid fracture growth and associated massive water break through that is an important part of a successful waterflood, thereby extending the life of both injection and associated production wells in waterflood secondary oil recovery operations.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This is a continuation patent application claiming benefit of priority to pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 115,766, filed Apr. 2, 2002, which claims priority to provisional application No. 60 / 281,563, filed Apr. 3, 2001, entitled “A Process For Waterflood Surveillance and Control”.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERAL FUNDING [0002] This invention was made with U.S. Government support under Contract Number DE-AC03-76SF00098 between the U.S. Department of Energy and The Regents of the University of California for the management and operation of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The U.S. Government has certain rights in this invention.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] 1. Field of the Invention [0004] The present invention relates to secondary oil recovery by waterflooding. Particularly, the present invention relates to a method and / or a hardware implementation of a method for controlling well injection pressures for at least on...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The system effectively controls injection pressures to minimize hydrofracture growth, optimizing oil recovery and extending the life of well fields by preventing channeling and maintaining reservoir stability, thus enhancing the economic viability of waterflooding operations.

Problems solved by technology

Improper management of waterfloods can create permanent, irreparable damage to well fields that can trap oil so that subsequent waterflooding becomes futile.

The growth of such hydrofractures can cause a direct conduit from an injector to a producer, whereby no further oil is produced, and water is simply pumped in the injector, conducted through the hydrofractured conduit, and recovered at the producer through a process known as “channeling.” At this juncture, the injector is no longer useful in its function, and is now known as a failed, dead, or lost well.

Lost wells are undesirable for many reasons.

There is lost time in drilling a new well, resulting in lost production time.

There is additional cost for the drilling labor and materials.

Finally, a portion of the reservoir is rendered unrecoverable using traditional economically viable recovery means.

When a significant fraction of these closely packed wells fail, the drilling resources available may be exceeded, in such case, a lost well is truly lost, because it may not be replaced due to failure of yet more other wells.

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